(Rewind to June 10-16)
1) Going to Maasai church! This was one of the highlights of the whole trip. The children had three different choirs based on age and the Maasai women had one. And when I say choir you must remove the image of people in robes solemly singing with an occasional clap or sway. In the Maasai choir, people jump, clap, dance, crouch down, march in circles, and go all out to praise the Lord!
2) Visiting Rift Valley Acadamy. RVA is a boarding school for missionary kids. They have students ranging from 2nd grade through 12th grade. I loved being on their campus. We went to a student led worship service and it was SO good. The school is so welcoming and has everything a kid would want. It is located at Kijabe station which is on a mountainside that overlooks the rift valley. The view from their soccer field is gorgeous!
3) Visiting a Maasai school. The same day we saw RVA we visited the Maasai school. I don’t think the stark contrast hit me until I was looking back on my photos. RVA had nice classrooms with 30 individual desks and you would think you were in America if you didn’t know differently. This picture shows a typical Kenyan classroom. And the number of kids squished into each of these rooms and taught by just one teacher is as high as 100. Even when we are in Kenya we have so much and they have so little.
4) Rounding on the pediatric ward at Kijabe hospital. I had the privilege of following a Kenyan pediatrician on her rounds one morning. I was captivated by the children and their stories. So many of the illnesses could be prevented but unfortunately are costing some of the kids their lives. My heart breaks for them. Visiting that ward fuels my desire to become a pediatrician like nothing else. This a picture of the neonatal ICU. Kenyan way of wording it!
5) Watching surgeries! I have been dying to get into the operating room to see surgeries for years. The day finally came and I was all dressed up and scrubbed in and found myself standing right near the table watching wide-eyed. I moved among the 8 operating rooms seeing one broken and wounded body after another. I know that surgery ultimately brings healing, but seeing the broken bodies during amputations and mastectomies and various others overwhelmed me. I left the rooms before my allotted time and spent some time to struggle once again with the hard question of why bodies break and people suffer. It may take me years to process it all but I found peace remembering that God is the ultimate healer and he loves each of those surgery patients so much!
6) Maisha guesthouse. This was a little place known as a missionary secret. We had the privilege to debrief for two days at a gorgeous house made of stone tucked in between and jungle and a mountainside. I have never been to a more peaceful place in my life!
7) Safari! Mari finally went on her long awaited safari!! We saw water buffalo, pelicans, zebras, monkeys, baboons, birds, rhinos, and giraffes. The lions and leopards were too allusive for us so we didn’t get to see them. It was a great day to enjoy God’s creation.
8) Iced coffee injustice. While eating lunch at the restaurant at the game park, we noticed iced coffee was on their menu—a rare sight in Kenya. Being the coffee addicts that Kate and I are, we decided to order some. We were saddened when we were told they were out of iced coffee. We asked if they had ice for iced coffee thinking we could make it ourselves. They said no. We gave up and ordered hot coffee. A few of the guys on the team ordered iced tea at the same time. Sure enough, the iced tea came with huge ice cubes in it and Kate and I exchanged confused and disappointed glances as we sipped our hot drink. Iced coffee is hardly a concern of mine to make the top ten. However, this is an excellent example of how Kenyans have a difficult time thinking outside of the box and how different their thought processes are from mine. We laughed over the matter while appreciating the small things that make each culture so unique.
9) Eating sugar cane! I felt like I was chewing on a piece of sweet wood—which technically I was. It tasted good and I’m a fan.
10) Running with zebras! I thought nothing could get better than running in Kenya. But I was wrong. Running in Kenya with zebras takes the hat! Autsin and I went for a run early one morning with a missionary and we ran right up to a herd of about 30 zebra in the wild. The missionary’s dog stirred up the herd and for a few moments we found ourselves running along with the zebras. It was SO COOL!
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